Journey of the people unites aboriginals

Susan Schwartz, The Gazette03.25.2013

Martin Gunn, 30, right, an Algonquin from the Kitcisakik community in northern Quebec, whose bone cancer is in remission, joined nearly 300 walkers from the First Nations who set out Jan. 16 from Whapmagoostui on Hudson Bay to walk more than 1,500 kilometres to Ottawa in support of unity among First Nations. Bastienne Duncan Châtelain, 13, left, was part of a group of 15 young people from Wakefield who joined the First Nations group, walking with them from Farrellton to Wakefield.

The Quebec village of Wakefield welcomed close to 300 young people from First Nations communities on Saturday with Bannock buns and speeches, followed by a potluck dinner of chili and quinoa salad prepared by volunteers, and a warm place to bed down in the local community centre.

Resident Scott Duncan spearheaded the initiative to reach out to the group, which was on the final leg of a walking expedition that had begun two months earlier on a frigid day in Hudson Bay — a journey that has captured the imaginations of thousands.

On Jan. 16, six young men and a guide and trailmaker set out from the community of Whapmagoostui on the shores of Hudson Bay — Quebec’s northernmost Cree village — to walk 1,500 kilometres to Ottawa in support of unity among the different First Nations. The group snowballed in size along the way, as they passed through native areas and young people from as many as 20 First Nations communities joined the journey.

The walk culminates on Monday on Parliament Hill, where Romeo Saganash, the NDP member of Parliament for Abitibi—James Bay—Nunavik—Eeyou, is to meet with the original seven.

Meanwhile, Wakefield, 30 km north of Ottawa, welcomed the walkers. “It felt like home to us,” said Jordan Masty, who joined the seven walkers in early February. “Wakefield was awesome — a big party.”

Then on Sunday, in Chelsea, a municipality only 10 km north of Ottawa, the town hosted the walkers with a meal prepared by restaurant Les Fougères: beef and barley soup, tourtière and salad and, for dessert, brownies and carrot cake.

Twenty-year-old Masty spoke to The Gazette as the group approached Chelsea. “My body is getting tired,” he said. “The people who joined the First Nations people; that’s the thing that keeps me going — knowing we are not alone,” he said.

“We have achieved a lot since the walk started: brothers and sisters from the north, east, south and west coming together to speak out as one. We are the First Nations people. Our ancestors were here before non-aboriginals were here. I think that is my message.”Masty, a volunteer firefighter, had been on journeys back home, his first when he was only 7, but nothing like this. When another walker asked him to join, he waited two weeks to respond. “I asked my father, my mother and my grandparents. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy journey.”

He said his father told him not to dress too warmly for fear that, if he were too hot and slowed down, he would get cold right away.

At the start of the journey, the walkers wore moccasins and snowshoes as they walked on trails and ice. They kept a pace of about eight kilometres an hour and covered 30 to 40 km each day, sometimes in brutal conditions: blizzards and snowstorms, and temperatures that dropped below minus-50 Celsius.

“At the beginning, it was very tough on them, just facing the elements and being outdoors. When they started, a lot of people had doubts. It was minus-54 with the wind chill and that is the harshest time of the year back home,” Whapmagoostui Chief Stanley George said.

As the weather grew warmer and the ice became too thin for them to walk on it, the walkers had to replace their snowshoes with regular boots and walk on roads. “It was much harder on our feet,” Masty said. “That’s when everyone started to have their knee problems and blisters.”

In what is known as the Journey of Nishiyuu, Cree for journey of the people, the walkers travelled along what had been traditional Cree and Algonquin trading routes. For the first month, they walked primarily through Cree settlements and villages: the Cree territory of northern Quebec is about the size of France, Duncan explained. Then they entered the territory of the Algonquin First Nation near Val d’Or, walked through La Vérendrye Provincial Park and exited at Maniwaki, on the Gatineau River.

“Their story really captured people’s imaginations — the tremendous adventure of crossing the north in the winter,” Duncan said.

For Wakefield, organizing the welcome was “a kind of acknowledgment that, all of a sudden, they were so visible to us ... a way to say: ‘Hey, we think what you are doing is terrific.’ ”

Meetings were held with local police and municipal councillors and the Wakefield-La Pêche Community Centre, and financial and logistical support was organized; about 100 volunteers agreed to get involved, doing everything from making meals to pitching tents. Myriad municipal responsibilities included organizing parking for vans transporting the walkers’ belongings and ensuring access for emergency vehicles. There were donations from local businesses, including food and more than 250 pairs of socks. An on-site medical clinic was set up.

“The cooperation and organization was something to see,” said Jacqueline Lambert-Madore, a councillor for Ward 5 of the municipality of La Pêche, which includes Wakefield. “It was very impressive.”

Observed Duncan: “We saw this at first as ‘Let’s feed them a big meal and give them shelter,’ but, ultimately it became a meeting with our village. People were talking and partying.

“A man came up to me this morning, a Cree fellow,” he said on Sunday, “and said: ‘This is what Canada should be like, with different native and non-native communities coming together.’ And I think for me, that’s what it is. All these people who have this unbelievable history, these traditions and connections with the land on which I live: I wish I knew more about them. I wish everybody knew more. I think that’s what motivated me. We can help these people be more visible and we can be with them and connect with them. Maybe the word I would use is reconciliation — for me, very personally, with the people in our country.”

Of the walkers, George said: “Every one had his own reasons for walking. One guy just recently lost a four-month old baby to a mystery illness; he was grieving.”

Some said the walk was about helping them to heal and feel better about themselves, Duncan said. There are native communities plagued by such problems as domestic violence and underemployment, a high suicide rate and substance abuse. One walker, a young woman, said to him during the Wakefield gathering: “Every kilometre I walked through the bush, I could feel my sadness, my suffering, just leave me.”

Politically, the journey was ignited in part by the Idle No More movement. Said George: “The young people in my community asked me, ‘What are we doing to show our support to other First Nations?’

“Let’s throw in our support and let’s embark on this journey and call for unity to all First Nations, to all Quebecers and other Canadians who feel we have to stand up and ensure the earth is well protected for generations to come.”

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